María Abascal

EU Commissioner for Financial Services and the Savings and Investment Union

María Abascal is Director General at AEB since May 2022. She is responsible of the Public Policy Department, an area that encompasses activities related to Banking, Regulation, Sustainability, Payments and Digitalization. She coordinates sectorial initiatives related to the social contribution of banking, especially through the development of the Strategic Protocol to Strengthen the Social and Sustainable Commitment of the sector. Since January 2025, she has been appointed as Chair of the Executive Committee of the European Banking Federation.

María Abascal represents the AEB in the highest governing bodies of the European Banking Federation, as a member of the executive committee and as an alternate on the board of directors. She is also Member of the IBFed.

With extensive experience in regulation and public policies, she has more than twenty years of experience in the financial sector, both in the public and private spheres, having developed a large part of her professional career at BBVA where she was Global Director of Public Affairs and chief economist of Regulation and Public Policies.

She has previously worked at the General Directorate of the Spanish Treasury and Financial Policy as Deputy Director General of Financial and Strategic Analysis. Moreover, she worked at the Spanish Institute of Foreign Trade (ICEX) in the Office of the Executive Vice President.

In 2005, María joined the Spanish Civil Service as a member of the senior Corps of State Economists and Trade Experts, and she is currently on leave. She has a degree in Economics from Madrid’s Complutense University.

She has been Professor in different master's degrees at the University of Navarra (banking and financial regulation between 2017-2019), at IEB (banking between 2013-2018) and at ICADE (financial markets in 2007 and 2008). She is the author of several publications in specialized magazines.